Monsters

By Sharpe Quill

Chapter 10.5: Perspective

Brine fumed behind his bar inside The Hole. He hated this waiting, this feeling of helplessness as outside the roars and screams of combat echoed inside the mostly-silent common room. All around him, ponies were huddled in groups as far away from the main doors as they could be. No one spoke, not even to whisper. The only sounds were the occasional whimper. From the smell of it, more than one pony had lost their nerve in a much more literal sense.

How he hated being old! In his prime, he would have been out there now, fighting this monster that had dared to disturb his home. Now he had been shunted aside, forced to hole up with these others, herded into his own place of business like any common dock worker. If his old crew could see him now, how they would mock him. Luna rest their salty souls.

He snorted in frustration. Beside him the mayor lay on the floor, quivering in fear. He couldn’t see, since she was on his blind side, but he suspected that she was crying. A small part of him felt some sympathy for her. She was a fine politician and a decent organizer, perfect for the kind of community that Dock normally was, not to mention amenable to Brine and his business, but this was far beyond her scope of control.

When she had first come to Brine with the news that a zebra historical society would be transporting some kind of magical artifact along with a shipment of gems, she had been slightly frantic about the whole thing. Apparently it was some kind of dangerous, cursed object or some such, not that the mayor believed in such things (Brine knew better of course. He had seen many things in his youth, and knew to not scoff at curses), but the Royal Guard had considered it a rather significant threat or some such, and sent a full contingent of soldiers to escort the object to Canterlot.

The mayor was not as corrupt as many believed her to be, but any politican gets nervous at the presence of Royal Guards. It was a lot of pressure for somepony who usually had little to no pressure on them, and Olive had been showing signs of cracking. Her handling of the fire and in particular the deaths of the fillies had been lackluster at best, and Brine knew for sure that once this all blew over, there would be serious repercussions for the mayor.

'If we live that long,' he thought as a roar reverberated through the building, followed by several whimpers from the terrified ponies inside.

Brine kept sorting through things in his head, trying to remember if there had been any indication of just who had been the one to bring the monster here. It was better than spending time thinking about what would happen to them all if the Guards couldn't stop that creature. He knew the shipment that had brought it of course, but he had been telling Captain Belle the truth, he really didn't know who had arranged for it. Anonymous transactions were common for his kind of work, and Brine hadn't gotten where he was by being nosy. It was not uncommon for rich merchants or nobles from Canterlot to smuggle illegal goods into the city itself, and Brine had spent years building his reputation as a reliable and discreet pony, so when he had received the message detailing the shipment of an exotic animal and instructions for when and how to transport them to Canterlot, he hadn't thought it unusual. Especially considering it had come with double his usual rate fully in advance.

Something must have gone wrong in the warehouse and this creature, this 'Chimera' as Sergeant Emerald had called it, had woken up and gotten loose. And had been causing havoc ever since. Assuming the guards could actually put it down and they didn't all die here today, Brine planned on having a long chat with the merchant that the package was meant to be given to. One way or the other, he was going find out who was responsible for bringing that monster to Dock and he was going to make them pay. He might even bring Captain Belle with him, she had been performing admirably over the last few days. Besides, she might prove useful.

There came a particularly violent roar of fire from outside, but this time, it was suddenly cut off. This was followed immediately by a loud crashing sound, and then silence.

Nopony moved. Nopony made a sound. It seemed like nopony was even breathing. Was it over? Who had won? Were they even now waiting for the approach of imminent doom?

After nearly a minute of absolute silence, a few of the ponies closer to the door began to creep slowly toward it. Some ponies started whispering to each other, and soon the room was full of whispers. Brine focused on the door himself, staring and waiting silently. Next to him, he could hear the mayor shakily rise to her hooves.

Suddenly, the door slammed open. A few ponies gave cries of startled terror but quickly fell silent. Brine stared.

Captain Belle stood in the doorway. Something on the pier was on fire and it flickered behind her, casting her shadow along the floor. She wasn't wearing her barding and the silver flower bud on her flank stood out against her dark grey coat. Her mane was dirty and unkempt, and singed badly. Her tinted glasses were down, covering her eyes completely. She stood with her head held high, but there was a weariness about her that was noticeable, even from a distance. Nopony made a sound as she walked into the tavern. She was limping, one of her hind legs dragging slightly. Her hooves echoed on the wooden floor. Everypony there stared at her with a mixture of awe and nervousness as she slowly made her way forward. The crowd of ponies parted for her as she finally reached the bar. She raised her glasses to her forehead and looked Brine straight in his good eye. There was a hardness to her expression that almost made him take a step back.

"Brine," she said, her voice tired, dry, and slightly hoarse, "I think I'll have that drink now."

Author's Notes:

Well, the good news is that this story isn't dead, despite all evidence to the contrary. I really don't have an excuse for not updating more often, I can only say that this last year has seen major changes in my life and unfortunately it forced writing pretty far down my list of priorities.

I know this isn't a full chapter, but when I saw that the story had been moved to the 'dead' list, I figured I needed to do something. The actual chapter is almost done, although the final resolution has been absurdly difficult to piece together. My goal is to get it out before the end of the year. Like I said, it's almost done, so hopefully.

I apologize for the massive delay, hopefully I do still have a few readers interested in seeing how this all ends, please be patient. The next update should be the last one, including the final chapter and a short epilogue. I hope you enjoyed this short intermediary chapter.

As always, MLP and its characters are © Hasbro and Lauren Faust respectively.

All OCs, however, are purely mine, or their respective owners.

Any and all feedback/comments are greatly appreciated.